29. Covenant Love between God and His People
29
Covenant Love between God and His People1
I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
—Zechariah 13:9
There is (if we may so speak) a shaking of hands on both sides. There God claims kindness to His people, and they claim kindness to Him; He takes hold of them, and they cleave to Him; He loves them, and they love Him. Kindness between God and His people never stands on one side; it is on both sides. However, God must begin. Love is not an herb that grows with the root uppermost and the top down: it does not grow up, but comes down from God, and the beams of it spring up to Him again.
See this meeting: the church says, “Draw me” (Song 1:4). She speaks to Christ to draw her; then says Christ, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away” (Song 2:10). He seeks her, and she seeks Him. She says, “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest” (Song 1:7). I will be where Thou dwellest; I will be where Thou art. Christ seeks you in the sacrament; you seek Him again, and though the Devil should say the contrary, there shall be a meeting. She says, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” (Song 3:3). He says, “Come with me from Lebanon” (Song 4:8). He calls her. She says, “We will remember thy love more than wine” (Song 1:4). He says, “How much better is thy love than wine!” (Song 4:10). He calls her, “my love, my fair one” (Song 2:10). She says that He is “white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand” (Song 5:10).
Let His love get a meeting. He fought through death and hell to find you; seek Him through all troubles. He bought you dear;2 you say, “O that I could buy Him, and give all that I have or could do for Him.” There is not any blessed marriage otherwise. Do you not love Christ clearly? Would you not suffer and die for Him, as He suffered and died for you? It is not marriage-love if it is not so; it is but feigned love. Now Christ is holding forth His love to you this day. Will you not accept the offer, and will you return nothing again? I like not that kindness3 when there is no taking and giving, no borrowing and lending betwixt Christ and you. May the Lord Jehovah persuade you to embrace the offer and flee into lovely Christ Jesus, the glorious Prince of renown, and to Him be praise forever and ever. Amen.
1. Communion Sermons, 44–45.
2. bought you dear: at an expensive price
3. kindness: relationship